On day one of the world championships, the cycling gods frowned on the British sprinters and smiled beatifically on the men's endurance squad. Steven Burke, Ed Clancy, Peter Kennaugh, Ben Swift, Geraint Thomas and Andy Tennant scored a clean sweep, taking home a rainbow jersey each after Swift scored in the scratch race and the other five finally shook Australia's domination in the team pursuit, breaking their own world record to boot.

This week, what matters is the momentum two gold medals out of a possible four gave the team. In the longer-term, the team pursuit triumph has infinitely greater implications for the London Olympics, as the scratch race does not figure on the programme. After winning silver at the test event at the London Olympic velodrome in February, the team had spoken with a single voice: they were at last closing the gap on the Australians, world champions every year since Beijing. The gap is now nonexistent: this was a desperately tight race, with less than a fifth of a second between the two teams in both the qualifying round and the final.

After the fastest ever qualifying round, with GB narrowly ahead of Australia as both teams broke 3min 55sec, it was certain that the world record would fall in the final. What was unexpected, however, was how much that would demand of both teams. Going below the 3min 53.313sec the Britons set in Beijing is not to be taken lightly, with the last laps of the final a battle between two teams that were cycling like dead men walking. "We went off like bats out of hell, both teams, and we were all dying on our asses at the end," said Clancy. "It was a proper shit fight."

The final was brutally tight, with the lead changing six times. After qualifying, the British had brought in Burke for Tennant – who also got a rainbow jersey and medal, as the rules stipulate – and they led until just before halfway. The lead oscillated for close on a kilometre, and after 2,500m the Australians began slipping behind. It looked as if they were gone for good, with the gap approaching a second, but in the final two laps it was the Britons who fell back, losing all but 0.106sec of their advantage. The world record fell, but only to 3min 53.295sec.

The victory could prove a vital springboard for a British squad that has been slowly coming together since a disappointing ride, albeit a gold medal winning one, last October in the European championships. Tennant was included only two weeks ago after turning his form round since February, while Thomas said he had been left under no illusions that he had come here to fight for his place.

While it is almost taken for granted that the team pursuiters will win medals – they have not gone home empty-handed since Pruskov in 2009 – British men's medals in bunch races are seldom seen. It is 10 years since the last British win in a solo event – Chris Newton's victory in the points race in Copenhagen – because the team target the more predictable timed events. Swift was riding the scratch because the late inclusion of Tennant meant that, with five riders making the team pursuit lineup, he was the unlucky one who would otherwise have been left twiddling his thumbs. As a result he will race on Saturday in the points race, and on Sunday with Thomas in the Madison.

"I've had a few knockbacks from the team pursuit, and I'm going to discuss my future with the coaches," he said. On the road, the Yorkshire-born 24-year-old is a sprinter who can take victories in hillier races; here, his form may not have been quite good enough to earn him a slot alongside Clancy and company, but it was sparkling in the scratch race, where he attacked four laps from the finish. It was a classic late move as the sprinters are looking to save their strength for the final gallop, but there was always the risk that he might be swallowed up as the line beckoned. In the final straight the field were on his heels and the second rider in was a mere half a bike length behind on the line.

Rarer still than solo endurance success is a lack of a medal in the men's team sprint. Such a thing has not been seen in a world championship since 1998, the first full year of lottery funding. Although GB qualified only fourth fastest, it took the intervention of the referees to definitively end their medal hopes. Together with Germany, the massive favourites, and Australia and Greece, Sir Chris Hoy, Jason Kenny and the world championship debutant Philip Hindes were disqualified for changing outside the designated zone in the finish straight.

Although there was no contesting that Hindes had infringed as he made way for Kenny at the end of lap one, with four teams going at once, it was hard to avoid the impression that the referees had decided to enforce the rule at the price of any value this had as a sporting contest. If there was some compensation, it came in the fact that Hindes rode a personal best of 17.5sec for his lap, in spite of a problem with the start gate. That is better than the selectors had hoped for when they put him in the starting trio, and it promises well for the future.

There was no such consolation for Victoria Pendleton and Jess Varnish, triumphant world record breakers at the London World Cup in February. They finished only fourth – an agonising .004sec behind the Chinese duo of Gong Jinje and Guo Shuang – and had to watch their record fall to the German duo of Miriam Welte and Kristina Vogel, with the Australians Anna Meares and Kaarle McCulloch also bettering it. Mentally, they will have to bounce back at once, as there is barely time to draw breath before the start of the match sprint series.